The music of Luigi Nono has always been an important point of reference for Olga Neuwirth. Like Nono, during her years in Venice she internalizedthe fleeting acoustic spaces of the lagoon city. Naturally, St. Mark’s Basilica, in which Nono’s Promoteo was premiered, plays a key role here. Neuwirth’s Encantadas emerged as a reaction to the special situation of this acoustic space. In an elaborate technique, she analyzed and rendered the sound spaces of St. Mark’s at IRCAM. At the same time, Neuwirth refers to Herman Melville’s novella The Encantadas, philosophical considerations set on the Galápagos Islands. She presents the work as an“ark of dreams,” explains Neuwirth, “on which one travels through time and space, from one island to the next across the raw ocean.”